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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think Barbara is a lovely name.

317 replies

Misscromwellrocks · 02/01/2020 20:16

A friend's daughter has just called her new daughter Barbara. A few people have wrinkled their noses, but I think it's a lovely vintage Enid Blytonish name.

AIBU?

OP posts:
AlexaAmbidextra · 03/01/2020 06:03

I just think of Miss Babs in Acorn Antiques. 😂

mithrandis · 03/01/2020 05:53

I'd rate Barbara similarly to names like Agatha, Bertha, Ethel, and Joyce — that is to say, not very highly at all. Something like Dorothy, Gertrude, Josephine, and Wilhelmina, OTOH, would fall into the category of 'granny chic' IMO!

Inanothertime · 03/01/2020 05:22

No from me.

ByeMF · 03/01/2020 05:13

Some harsh comments here. I know an extremely intelligent, kind, funny, sassy woman called Barbara. She's not fat or old!

onemorecupofcoffeefortheroad · 03/01/2020 05:02

I have an Auntie Barbara and she's lovely. I'm in my 50s and she's in her 80s - definitely a name popular in my parents generation and one I associate with friends of my parents - I still think it's a lovely name though as I can see past its cultural associations.
Also like Shirley - another name that was part of my parents' generation.

JolieOBrien · 03/01/2020 04:34

I have a friend who is called Julie and in her 50s which I think sounds strange now but it did suit her when she was younger. I have named my 2 children names that will suit a young person and a old person imho. Jolie is not my real name before anyone asks.

JolieOBrien · 03/01/2020 04:32

Barbara is a bit old fashioned imho I do know a young woman who is called Barbara and she likes to be called Babs instead.

Ohtherewearethen · 03/01/2020 04:29

At a farm park last month there was a chap running about after a pair of toddlers and over the course of the afternoon I heard him call them Malcolm and Graham which surprised me

Durgasarrow · 03/01/2020 03:55

It's literally barbaric. I loathe it

MerryInthechelseahotel · 03/01/2020 02:48

prettybaby I think she was kidding Grin

ohprettybaby · 03/01/2020 02:26

Other dc are Norma Joan and Shelia Fanny.

Others might find them hideous but our main criteria for names was unusual, rather than anything we loved or the dc might like to be called. We think it makes us sound edgy and cool.
Edgy and cool? Grin You are kidding, right? They are extremely old-fashioned names and not suitable to call a baby. They make me think of a baby's body with an adult head on it. Those poor children.

ohprettybaby · 03/01/2020 02:16

I know people who have named their children Maude and Josie. They are definitely names that are more fitting to older people.

ohprettybaby · 03/01/2020 02:13

It sounds like the name of a pensioner.

NameChangeNugget · 03/01/2020 02:01

Really like it.

Makes a nice change from Emily, Olivia and Ava 😴

MangoFeverDream · 03/01/2020 01:58

Some names are recycled, but others are left on the trash heap of civilization: Bertha, Doris, Eustace, Gladys, Winston ...

Barbara is a hideous name and should be rejected outright

ViciousJackdaw · 03/01/2020 01:51

Norbert/Nobby isn’t one that I expect to see again

A friend from my home city knows someone who did actually want to call their DS Norbert. His DW put a stop to it and they finally agreed on Kenneth.

SistineScreamer · 03/01/2020 01:46

Bleh. Terribly old and just not nice. Some names (Barbara, Maureen, Doris, Susan, Dorothy to name some) should die with their generation. They're just not names you'd call anyone under 60 and the ones that are (young adult etc) are very rare.

To look at a newborn baby and willingly call her Doris ...I can't understand the mentality. Is not cool, or vintage or old fashioned. It's just ugly and sets the kid up for a lifetime of bullying. Same with those special snowflakes who call their sprogs Nevaeh or 'Boss' because they think they're fucking special. Hmm

Thornhill58 · 03/01/2020 01:43

Lovely name for a 70+ lady. Not a baby girl.

Ozgirl75 · 03/01/2020 01:43

We have a Derek and a Walter in our school! Age 9 and 7.

Poorolddaddypig · 03/01/2020 01:40

I hate it and I love a lot of them - Nora, Flora, Pearl, Florence, Olive, Sylvia, Caroline, etc. Barbara just looks and sounds a bit ugly and has horrible nn Babs which is the icing on the cake

LittleMissV989 · 03/01/2020 01:37

Old fashioned

LittleMissV989 · 03/01/2020 01:37

Barbara is my mums name. I found it quite sad reading some of these comments people are so rude. I get its good fashioned and not to everyone's taste. I like it but then I am biased Smile

NearlyGranny · 03/01/2020 01:02

Half the little boys and young men in Vanuatu are called Walter/Wally! I was puzzled but then I was told it was because Father Walter Lini was instrumental in the movement for independence and served as the first prime minister on and off for 11 years from 1980.

I got quite used to all the Wallies - never met a ni-Van Barbara though!

LoseLooseLucy · 03/01/2020 00:43

I actually know a 3 year old Derek, I like it.
I love Nancy, it seems to have made a comeback.
Barbara not so much.

Bluerussian · 03/01/2020 00:06

I like the name too, it's due a come back. Maybe your friend will start a trend. Having said that I hate the fact that some people try to find names that nobody else has, there are so many good, classic names and who cares if lots of others have the same. At least the kids won't be teased at school. My son had loads of boys called David and Nicholas at school (Dave & Nick), they even once had a snooker game of Daves v Nicks and they all like their names to this day!

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